F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 276 Overtaking
On Sunday, November 15th, the sky was somewhat overcast before the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Many people looked at the sky with concern, fearing that if it rained, there would be even more chaos.

Even Wu Shi didn't want it to rain at that moment.

On rainy days, he might indeed be more likely to reach the front lines, but he would also be more likely to be taken out by random torpedoes.

Fortunately, not a single drop of rain fell until just before the match.

However, the rising clouds still carried humidity and blocked the sun, causing the ground temperature to slowly decrease.

Before the race officially began, Wu Shi, like the other drivers, wore black epaulettes on his arms as required by the race organizers.

This is because on Friday, November 13, Paris was hit by a K attack, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of many innocent people.

Jean Todt organized this minute of silence before the Brazilian national anthem was played.

After the event, Wu Shi returned to his vehicle.

Jonathan was looking at something on his laptop, and as soon as he came over, he immediately said:

"Ground temperatures are expected to continue to drop, which is something you need to be aware of. The tires that are replaced later may not be as easy to keep warm."

Upon hearing this, Wu Shi squatted down and touched the ground; it was still scalding hot.

"It's 50°C now, it'll soon be 40°C, and it's expected to be in the 30s by the end of the match," Jonathan explained in detail.

"it is good."

Wu Shi stood up and nodded. He looked ahead, thinking that it was truly rare for the train to start from this location this year.

He was originally in fourth place to start, but due to the engine change, he was penalized and dropped ten places to start in 14th place.

Ricardo fared even worse, as he was penalized 20 places for making too many changes and will start at the back of the pack.

However, things got even worse when Alonso was penalized and dropped 25 places, starting at the bottom of the pack.

In addition, Nasr blocked Massa's vehicle in Q1 and was penalized 3 places.

As the final bell rang, the crew moved to the sides of the track, and a moment later, the warm-up lap began.

On the track, apart from Bottas and Sainz who started on medium tires, all the other drivers used soft tires.

hum!
Hamilton started the race and led the pack forward.

As soon as Wu Shi started the car, he noticed the situation on the right; it seemed that a car was stuck.

I glanced at it as I passed by; it was Red Bull, probably Sainz.

I don't know what problem I encountered.

When the tire warm-up round came back, position 9 was empty, obviously the car that had just had the problem had been pushed back to the repair area.

“Science electronics malfunction, will start from the repair area, you are now actually P13,” Jonathan informed Wu Shi of the situation in TR.

Wu Shi gripped the steering wheel; ahead of him were Nasr, Bottas, Eriksson, and Perez.

Once he catches up with these four drivers, he will have achieved his first small goal.

beep!

beep!

As the red lights began to illuminate one by one, he glanced at the road, but kept an eye on the traffic lights out of the corner of his eye.

Wow!
Five red lights turned on and then off!

Buzz!

Wu Shi's car moved very fast. The moment he started, he knew he had to turn the steering wheel. Without thinking twice, the car veered to the side and was in the middle of the track.

Mercedes' powerful engine, combined with his unparalleled throttle and gear control, makes Williams visibly fast!
Whoosh! Swish!
After only a short while, Wu Shi passed between Nasr and Bottas.

He overtook Ericsson in the braking zone before Turn 1 thanks to his superior top speed.

Everyone crowded together to the Senna "S" bend.

Wu Shi had to pay attention to his surroundings, as Perez blocked his path forward in the paint.

Bottas and Grosjean, who had overtaken Eriksson, entered the corner side by side, seemingly ready to attack him at any moment.

He entered Turn 1 next to Perez, and then switched from inside to inside at Turn 2. He made a precise turn, making the most of the space between him and Perez, forcing Perez to slow down.

Once past the apex of the corner, the Williams car took an even bigger lead.

Then a new problem arose: Verstappen's vehicle was blocking the way.

Click!

Suddenly, a sound came from behind.

Wu Shi felt a chill run down his spine; there must have been a clash.

He couldn't see what was happening behind him, so he could only keep his distance from Verstappen and hope that the guy would be quick when he exited the corner!
Pan Zi did not disappoint; he performed exceptionally well in terms of speed.

Once the opportunity arose, he immediately stepped on the gas, and with the engine roaring, the speed increased rapidly.

Wu Shi quickly followed, and he suddenly realized that he was in a car entering turn 3.

Unfortunately, his rearview mirror showed two F1 cars closely following him, preventing him from choosing his route freely.

I wonder who was affected by the accident just now.

As the vehicles passed through bend number 3, they entered the starting straight.

Williams' performance advantage came into play once again.

After riding on Verstappen's trail for half the race, Wu Shi decisively pulled away, gradually closing the gap with Verstappen and eventually overtaking him.

However, Verstappen was also up to something, and very decisively followed Wu Shi's tail.

Using the wake to close the distance, he pulled away and pressed into the inside, arriving at Wu Shi's flank at turn 4.

Wu Shi had to give way to this, and only managed to overtake the car completely on the next short straight section.

“P8, good job!” Jonathan said in TR.

Claire visibly breathed a sigh of relief; 4 points was already quite good.

"Watch out for the yellow flag in the first timing segment," Jonathan reminded.

At this point, the director also began to replay the departure situation.

"Rosberg had a pretty good start, but Hamilton's defense was too tough," Bing Ge said.

"Yes, the first two rows of cars that started were all very good, no problems at all." Fei nodded.

Two Mercedes-Benzes and two Ferraris occupied the top four spots.

"Oh! Alonso! Alonso has run into Eriksen!"

"It's locked up, isn't it?"

Ao Ge also had a brilliant start, going straight from last place to 15th, but unfortunately he made a braking mistake at turn 1 and bumped into Eriksen who had fallen off the line.

Both of them were affected.

After the departure footage finished playing, the camera switched to Wu Shi's in-car view.

Wow! Young people react so quickly!

"It's as easy as chopping melons and vegetables!"

The two now understand why the race organizers specifically brought out Wu Shi's car footage for replay—it was simply too fast from the start.

"We jumped from 14th to 8th in the first lap! That was incredibly fast!" the soldier exclaimed, clapping his hands happily.

“Right now, Hulkenberg and Kvyat are ahead of us,” Fei Ge nodded.

"However, we should prioritize stability. Our current position is already quite good." The soldier was also worried about an accident that would force them to withdraw from the competition, which would be a huge loss.

On the field, Wu Shi was certainly aware of his situation and would be cautious when necessary.

"0.7 seconds."

After the first lap, Jonathan reports the results.

Not long after he finished speaking, Wu Shi kept getting closer to Hulkenberg.

He was incredibly fast, closing the distance to a point close enough to attack before turn 12, then slammed on the brakes and cut inside.

Hulkenberg didn't expect Wu Shi's attack to be so swift. By the time Wu Shi had penetrated the paint, he had to give up his parking spot.

What's even more terrifying is the section between bends 12 and 14. Wu Shi's car seemed glued to the ground, smoothly creating a gap in performance.

"Is there really such a big difference in vehicle performance?!" the soldier wondered.

“It’s not that big. Look, Massa is being chased hard by Kvyat. His lap times are similar to Hulkenberg’s,” Fei said. After the first lap, Massa was already more than a second behind Kim in fourth place.

Entering the second lap, this distance was quickly reduced to 2 seconds.

So for Massa, the traffic conditions on the track ahead were not bad, but even so, he was still not much faster than Kvyat and Hulkenberg.

Clearly, the answer should be that this car was very fast under Wu Shi's command.

"P7!"

When Wu Shi overtook Hulkenberg, everyone in the Williams crew applauded, adding two more points.

Toto looked grim. The more Wu Shi chased after Lewis, the slimmer his chances became.

After getting past Hulkenberg, Wu Shi did not get a clean space.

Kvyat is about 0.6 seconds ahead.

He checked the condition of the tires and realized that it wouldn't be good to start on the third lap.

So on the fourth lap, on the starting straight, I activated DRS to quickly close the gap.

Unfortunately, Kvyat also had DRS provided by Massa, so they couldn't close the gap much.

However, for Wu Shi, the straight road and the short distance were already quite sufficient.

Before the Senna corner, the extreme heavy braking was aimed at Kvyat's outside line. Kvyat had studied Wu Shi and focused on defending the inside line, never expecting Wu Shi to go to the outside line.

Wu Shi braked later on the outside, giving him a brief lead at the apex of Turn 1.

However, braking later also meant exiting the corner slower, and Kvyat immediately turned around and overtook him again, blocking him with unusual ferocity.

With his exit route blocked, Wu Shi immediately came up with a new solution.

At this point, the vehicle speed is slow enough that the steering performance is excellent.

Heh!

With a quick turn, the front of the car shifted from the right side of the Kvyat to the left, then began to accelerate, changing the direction of the attack.

Kvyat didn't even look in the rearview mirror, nor did he care that Wu Shi had gone to the outside of Turn 2.

After all, he cut inside from Turn 1 to the outside line in order to get inside from Turn 2, so it was natural for him to enter the turn.

However, Wu Shi's control of the cornering was too good. He caught up slightly at the center line and wedged half of the car into position, so Wu Shi dared not rush any further.

After all, Kvyat was driving recklessly, so he had to leave some room for maneuver.

He's typically unwilling to take risks right now.

Kvyat didn't realize this immediately, but if it had been Hamilton, he probably would have taken advantage of the situation right away.

After turning 2, Kvyat was still in the lead, but Wu Shi had blocked him by half a body length, so he could no longer change his line.

Immediately following the Daqu No. 3 reverse turn, Wu Shi changed from the center line to the inside line.

On such a long and gently curving curve, a significant distance difference immediately appears between the inner and outer lines.

The darting vehicles quickly caught up with Wu Shi, and then the entire vehicle was brought under stable control on the line.

Buzz!
Halfway down the bend, Williams had already finished chasing Red Bull.

The two cars were level as they exited the corner, but Wu Shi went into full throttle earlier and quickly pulled up the speed!

Wow!
Beyond completion.

“P6,” Jonathan muttered.

Rodrigo touched his headset, considering whether to ask Massa to let Wu Shi pass.

In the third lap, Wu Shi did not attack Massa, but instead was pulled away by Massa.

But it wasn't that he couldn't catch up. Jonathan could see clearly that Wu Shi had intentionally blocked Kvyat for a period of time in the bend.

By the fourth lap, Massa had increased the time difference between the two by more than one second, at which point Wu Shi began to accelerate.

He returned to the one-second zone behind Massa in just half a lap, but Kvyat behind him was unable to catch up immediately.

On the following DRS straight, Wu Shi used the DRS to quickly close the gap on Massa and made up for a significant amount of time difference.

On the subsequent bend, the distance between the two was rapidly decreasing.

Now, everyone could see through the camera how much faster Wu Shi was compared to Massa.

On the fifth lap, on the main straight, after DRS was activated again, Wu Shi pulled away.

At Turn 1, he overtook Massa from the inside.

Massa simply placed the vehicle in the center line without making any defensive moves, which seemed like he was just going through the motions.

"P5!"

Jonathan became excited, not only because Wu Shi had reached this position, but also because his teammate Massa did not argue with Wu Shi.

However, catching up with the Ferrari ahead was not easy at this point; after five laps, they had already fallen behind by nearly five seconds.

Wu Shi managed to keep his lap time at 1 minute and 17 seconds, but still couldn't get close to the front.

The Ferrari was clearly going very fast at that moment, around 1 minute 16.78 seconds.

Because of the difference in tires, Wu Shi didn't frantically try to catch up; there was no need.

The most important thing now is to secure the points you can earn.

At this point, Hamilton was in the lead, 1.1 seconds ahead of Rosberg, 3.3 seconds ahead of Vettel, 4.7 seconds ahead of Kimi, 9.1 seconds ahead of Wu Shi, 10.7 seconds ahead of Massa, and 12.5 seconds ahead of Kvyat.

Hulkenberg and Kvyat were quite close, but Hulkenberg was unable to catch up.

Meanwhile, the little train led by Perez is rapidly approaching Hulkenberg.

Verstappen is in tenth place, but his position is not secure, as Bottas is lurking behind him.

Fortunately, the DRS brought by Perez made his defense less of a problem.

On lap 10, Hulkenberg pitted and began his first tire change, switching to medium tires.

On the next lap, Massa, Kvyat, and Perez all pitted.

As soon as Kvyat appeared, he encountered Hulkenberg and was undercut.

Kovyat also went all out today, battling all the way to Turn 14 and overtaking again.

On lap 12, Wu Shi, Grosjean and Verstappen pitted.

Neutral tires were all selected.

On lap 13, Kimi, Eriksen, Alonso, and Button pitted.

The numerous pit stops by front-row drivers briefly propelled Bottas and Nasr into the top five.

On lap 14, Hamilton was the first to pit, changing tires in 4.4 seconds, which made Toto frown.

Vettel also pitted in the same lap and came out ahead of Kimi.

Because Bottas started on medium tires, he didn't pit for a tire change until very late.

On lap 15, Rosberg pitted for tires, taking 3.8 seconds, and emerged behind Hamilton.

第16圈，汉密尔顿领先罗斯伯格1.1秒、维特尔5.4秒、Kimi 11.1秒、吴轼13.4秒。

On the second stint, Wu Shi's tires were similar to Kimi's, so he gradually closed the gap with Kimi while controlling his lap time.

On lap 21, Jonathan's voice rang out:

"Pay attention to the tire condition; our monitoring data shows that the wear is quite severe."

"Yes, I will protect it."

After Wu Shi responded, his speed immediately decreased, and he stopped chasing Kimi.

In a 71-lap race, with a normal two-stop schedule, the second stint will require at least 30 laps.

But Vettel suddenly pitted on lap 33 to change to soft tires.

This move immediately forced the drivers in front to reconsider the changing situation.

First up is Mercedes. Hamilton cruised quite comfortably, but only led Vettel by 12 seconds.

With two stops and three stops, there is a possibility of being overtaken.

Mercedes must consider whether Ferrari will affect their Grand Prix wins.

Williams is also considering whether there is an opportunity to earn more rankings.

(End of this chapter)